Taxi driver chases, catches chain snatcher in Matunga

A 25-year-old taxi driver who caught hold of a 31-year-old chain-snatcher after chasing him for 500 metres and handing him to the Matunga police was felicitated by the police on Wednesday

MUMBAI: A 25-year-old taxi driver who caught hold of a 31-year-old chain-snatcher after chasing him for 500 metres and handing him to the Matunga police was felicitated by the police on Wednesday.

Taxi driver chases, catches chain snatcher in Matunga

According to the Matunga police taking benefit of an isolated patch of road, the snatcher fled with the mangal sutra of an 85-year-old woman. On Wednesday around 12 pm in the afternoon Devamma Gavkar, a resident of Gulmohar Housing society in Wadala was going from Five-Gardens towards Matunga when a man pulled her 50-gram mangal-sutra near Ruia College signal and started running.

“I was taking a passenger to Hindu Colony in Dadar East when I heard the woman shouting for help. I told the female passenger sitting in my cab that if she wished she can get down. I started chasing the chain-snatcher and asked him to stop however he was running towards Kanakia Nagar. I started chasing him and got a hint on which road he will be going that’s when I took a right turn, encircling him came ahead of him from another road. He had already removed his shirt and was roaming on sando vest, seeing me he started running I left the cab and followed him and caught hold of him near Raja Shivaji Vidyalaya,” said Abdul Qureshi, 25, a taxi driver from Antop Hill area.

Qureshi then with the help of the passenger called the police and handed the accused over to the Matunga police.

The chain snatcher was identified as Jayesh Maru, 31, a resident of Dadar East, Naigaon. “We have recovered the stolen mangal-sutra from the accused. Qureshi was well-aware of the area being a taxi-driver from the same region. He chased the accused Maru for around half-a-kilometre. We took Qureshi to our DCP Prashant Kadam who felicitated him for his good work,” said Deepak Chavan, senior inspector of police, Matunga police station.

“We are checking if Maru has any record,” said Chavan.The police said they have recovered the mangal-sutra and will hand it to the senior citizen soon.